• Ecotech Radion TIR lens upgrade and installation

    I was up at my LFS tonight, and he was ready to install his brand new Radions into the canopy fixture. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play with these for a bit, and took pictures with my iPhone4 as time allowed.

    Two days ago, i posted on our Facebook/reefaddicts wall that Ecotech released information to upgrade the current LED reflector with their new TIR lens. Frank had a bag of these lens already, so I offered to swap out a pair to see what was involved. Initially I figured you had to take out two screws to pull off this silvery plastic reflector dish.


    What that did was take off a clear acrylic cover. I had to take out four more screws around the perimeter, then four screws around the fan cover. Gently I pried up the black panel that protects the innards.

    Next, I had to remove four screws in the silver reflector, and two of them had white paste on the screws. I'm assuming it is thermal paste, because the other two screws didn't have them. I removed the reflector, oriented the new TIR lens in position and replaced the screws in the exact manner they came out.



    With that side down, I removed the two screws that held the clear acrylic disk on the right set of LEDs and then four more screws to remove the silver reflector. It isn't really a reflector since LEDs are mostly directional, but I'm not sure what Ecotech calls this part.

    I installed the other TIR lens, again carefully using the same screws where they were previously, white paste again in the exact holes they came out of.



    With this done, I placed the black gasket in place, and then fit the main cover back where it fit. All the screws were seated snugly, and the fan cover was screwed down next. In this next picture, the Radion LED fixture on the left is the standard type, and the one on the right has the TIR lens upgrade.





    The way the light fixtures are made, they have a slight wedge shape. By installing parallel rails on the top of the canopy, the lights can be pressed into place as the bottom is a little narrower than the top section. Carefully screwing the rails the proper distance apart, the lights were each put in their spot. Each light has four small screwed holders in the four corners, made for the hanging kit. Instead, we ran monofilament cable through those holes as a safety line. This way the fixtures were insured against falling into the tank.





    With that done, the ballasts were screwed to the back of the canopy, out away from getting wet. The lights have 10' long wiring for the ballasts to be under the tank or to the side, but we opted to put them up on top of the tank's canopy.



    Each ballast runs one light fixture, and uses 130w of power at most. Radions are completely programmable, and communicate with each other.

    Once everything was wired up and ready, we hoisted the assembly on top of the tank. Yes, it was heavy.



    Let there be light!





    As soon as the lights were on, all three of us (Frank, Tyler and myself) were impressed with the light spread. It really looked good, and the LEDs were in default mode still. Adjustments for the perfect look come later.





    In this next full tank shot, the right side of the tank is brighter. The reason is this: The right side is lit with a standard Radion in the front with a TIR lens upgraded Radion in the back. The middle section only had one light on, as the other one was already programmed for store use (and wasn't scheduled to turn on until 12pm to 6pm) and we were working on this around midnight, way past its bedtime. Finally, there was only one light on the left size turned on, as one more still needs to be installed.

    What you are seeing is a 450g reef with four of the six radions turned on.



    This next picture shows a standard Radion next to a TIR lens Radion (on the right). I know you can't see much, but it is obviously brighter in person (23% according to the email I got from Ecotech) and looks more white/washed out in this image.



    The tank already has some livestock, like this adorable Look Down fish. They are so small right now, but will grow to be huge.





    Here's what the tank looks like from behind. Pretty darn clean!



    Is the cabling system necessary? It can be quite secure, especially when each light costs about $750. Another option would be to find some rigid steel rod that you can feed through the holes to span the wood cross beams. This would provide an easier way to take a light out if necessary, but how often does this really happen?

    The next step is to get all the Radions communicating with each other, and then with the Vortech pumps beneath. We decided to call it a night, as there is always tomorrow.



    For those of you wondering how much work it is to swap out the silver reflector for the TIR lenses, I'd say you'd be looking at a 20 minute project per fixture.
    This article was originally published in blog: Ecotech Radion TIRlens upgrade and full install started by melev
    Comments 9 Comments
    1. joeogio's Avatar
      joeogio -
      seeing the inside of these fixtures doesn't help to justify buying them. come on eco tech i know you could sell these fixtures for $300 each and still be making bank

      they are nice fixtures and all but over priced for what they are
    1. melev's Avatar
      melev -
      Quote Originally Posted by joeogio View Post
      seeing the inside of these fixtures doesn't help to justify buying them. come on eco tech i know you could sell these fixtures for $300 each and still be making bank

      they are nice fixtures and all but over priced for what they are
      What you see are some LEDs and a fan. What you don't readily see are the touch buttons on the top surface, the WIFI system within that allows them to communicate with the other fixtures as well as your Vortech pumps (think storm, for example), and the R&D needed to make them. There's a lot more to these lights than meets the eye (these hook up the to Ecotech Battery Backup, for example), check out their website for the full spectrum of detail: http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion/
    1. fgarner's Avatar
      fgarner -
      Quote Originally Posted by melev View Post
      What you see are some LEDs and a fan. What you don't readily see are the touch buttons on the top surface, the WIFI system within that allows them to communicate with the other fixtures as well as your Vortech pumps (think storm, for example), and the R&D needed to make them. There's a lot more to these lights than meets the eye (these hook up the to Ecotech Battery Backup, for example), check out their website for the full spectrum of detail: http://ecotechmarine.com/products/radion/
      The lights are STUPID incredible!!!
    1. Sisterlimonpot's Avatar
      Sisterlimonpot -
      Marc is right, there's a lot of R&D that goes into these lights. If I were Ecotech I would take your comment as a compliment to how simple the design looks, however looks can be deceiving.

      If you've noticed, they have set the standard on how LED lights should be, many DIY'er are trying to mimic their color combinations, not only that but other LED companies are scrambling to come up with something similar, with a lower price I would imagine (thanks to ecotech spending a lot in R&D to be the first). But by that time ecotech will be rolling out the next best thing. Also don't forget about the ballast, I'm sure there's more to that then just a transformer that converts 120vac to 36vdc.


      I have 4 over my 125 and I'm very happy with them. The storm version is a novelty that wore off right away. Aside from the lights being second to none, the ability to be able to have each light talk to each other as well as the pumps wirelessly is a great feature. And there's rumors that they have the capability to go further with programming the radions and better control the ecosmart pumps by changing their modes throughout the day, that would be awesome. I would love to have reef crest during the day and nutrient transport mode at night, or any combination throughout the day for that matter.
    1. Blown76mav's Avatar
      Blown76mav -
      I would need over 4000.00 in lights, sorry don't see the savings of LED. I agree with joeogio, WAY overpriced. Personally I could care less about the storm function, I want them to come on and light my tank. They don't need to talk to each other. Heck a touch button on top is more than I would want. Unless these are going to save me 400.00 a month in electric bills I doubt I buy them. I did have there MP40w and MP60w on my last tank and will do so again in the future, those are excellent pumps but still overpriced in my opinion.
    1. Floggin's Avatar
      Floggin -
      Great write up! I like how those that own the Radions can justify buying them. Those who don't own them, just look at the price and can't see any justifcation. I personally would love to have some, they aren't in the budget right now, but will be in the future. Every person I have read about having them absolutely love them. I have never seen a negative comment from a person who actually does own them. Anyways, I like the upgrade of the lenses. Thanks again for the post.
    1. Blown76mav's Avatar
      Blown76mav -
      Please tell me how to justify over 4000.00 in lights, or how to light a 5 ft x 4 ft x 31" tank with just one or two.
    1. melev's Avatar
      melev -
      Quote Originally Posted by Blown76mav View Post
      Please tell me how to justify over 4000.00 in lights, or how to light a 5 ft x 4 ft x 31" tank with just one or two.
      You could probably get by with four of them. I just saved you $1000.
    1. ClustaAZ's Avatar
      ClustaAZ -
      Quote Originally Posted by joeogio View Post
      seeing the inside of these fixtures doesn't help to justify buying them. come on eco tech i know you could sell these fixtures for $300 each and still be making bank

      they are nice fixtures and all but over priced for what they are
      As as simply as this, don't buy them if you dont want to.

      I would love to see a DIY person put together a fixture with dimming, same color channels, usb interface, wifi, and software that would allow me to control and schedule each and every channel to run a specific way through out the day. If you can do that for less than $750 and have the fixture look halfway descent hanging above my rimless tank than let me know.